The capitalist election campaign is designed to de-politicize people and push the masses away from real and active participation in the political affairs of the country.

The campaigns of the Republicans and Democrats are, in the first place, focussed on creating diversions, repeating empty platitudes and calling each other names. None of the grave problems facing the people and our country are even placed on the agenda, much less discussed in a serious manner.

And such content as can be found in the platforms and speeches of the Democrats and Republicans is nothing more than the most backward propaganda, aimed at degrading the consciousness of the people and throwing society backwards. Take the Republican primaries for example. Beneath the tired platitudes, Romney, Paul, Gingrich and company could only present the ultra-reactionary program of the monopoly capitalist class. The Republican program is a program for increasing the exploitation of the workers to the maximum and completely shredding whatever is left of the "social safety net." It is a program which extols the "virtue" of the free market, recognizing only one right – the right of private property in the means of production, while denying that human beings have any rights whatsoever. It is a program of open racism and chauvinism, a program of aggression, imperialism and war.

As for the Democrats and those forces which insist that the people must vote for Obama as the so-called "lesser evil," they also aim at negating the role of the people altogether. The real content of the politics of the "lesser evil" is not directed against the "ultra-right," as some contend, but squarely against any independent thought and action on the part of the masses. In the first place, Obama and the Democrats represent the "ultra-right" – the reactionary anti-social agenda of monopoly capital – just as much as Romney and the Republicans. Those who campaign amongst the workers for Obama are trying to bludgeon the people into forgetting the deeds and class character of the Democrats and into giving up their own aspirations and program.

The entire election circus exerts tremendous pressure against the working masses, trying to force the people to give their consent to the capitalist government by voting for one or another of the two big parties. The attempt is made to reduce the entire political life of the masses to the role of passive spectators and "voting cattle," who can do nothing more than vote every two or four years.

But the profound and ever-deepening crisis of our country continually reveals two inescapable conclusions. Firstly, the monopoly capitalist class and its Democratic and Republican parties have no way out of the crisis; they can offer the people nothing but more poverty and exploitation, more repression and racism, more foreign intervention and war.

Thus, it is the working class and broad masses of people who must take things into their own hands and open the path for the progress of our country. The entire history of the last 100 years and more proves that it is the workers and people who are the decisive social force, fighting for their own emancipation and the future of our country. Even today, when the working class movement remains temporarily in retreat and the capitalists are on the offensive, it is the workers and people who are actively resisting government cut-backs in social services, organizing themselves in opposition to the racism of the government, etc. and so forth. Anyone who takes the time to talk with the people knows that tens of millions of people have nothing but contempt for the capitalist politicians, that a profound political polarization is developing in our country, and that every day more and more people are actively looking into how to build a genuine political alternative.

In short, there is no escaping reality and the reality is that there is one and only one decisive political task facing us. It is the task of helping to build up the independent, self-conscious political movement of the workers and people themselves.

The working class and people must break the stranglehold which the capitalist class and its two big parties exercise over the political life of the country. During the elections and beyond, the workers can begin by promoting the widest possible discussions over the serious problems facing our country. Such discussion must aim at bringing forward the independent aims and agenda of the people themselves, at looking into the facts and root causes of the problems and at putting forward clear-cut solutions.

The Workers Party has put forward an initial program that sets forth the immediate and long-range objectives of the working class.

This program begins with the demand that government and society recognize and guarantee all the inalienable economic rights of the people, including the right of everyone to a secure job or an income commensurate with our country's degree of development, the right to free, comprehensive health care, to the best possible education, to income security in old age or loss of capacity to work, etc. This program of economic rights goes directly against the line of the Republicans and Democrats who, while attacking the limited social safety net, are blaming the victims of capitalist exploitation for the poverty and exploitation imposed on them. The program of economic rights demands a fundamental change in the economy and in governmental policy so that the well-being of the people, not the profits of the capitalists, is the controlling factor. For example, we insist that the government must make more, not less, investments in health care, education, and so forth even while lowering the taxes imposed on the working people. It is not these vital social programs which are bankrupting the treasury and running up the deficit. On the contrary, it is the Democratic and Republican policy of militarizing the economy and guarantying fabulous profits for the big bankers and other capitalists which is draining the economy and ruining our country.

Our Party stands for the democratic renewal of the political process and political system. All the propaganda of the Republicans and Democrats against "big government" is only so much sand thrown into the eyes of the people. The Republicans and Democrats only want to eliminate any and all governmental responsibility for the well-being or rights of the people even while they use all the power of government to put the country at the disposal of big business. These days all the capitalist politicians talk against the establishment with the sole aim of further consolidating their own power. Genuine political reform must aim at empowering the people as the decision-makers and leaders of the country. Such a program of democratic renewal will include mechanisms which give the people a direct role in governance, empower the people to directly choose their representatives and to hold them accountable.

The immediate objectives of the Workers Party includes the program for a democratic foreign policy. Such a program demands the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops stationed abroad, the withdrawal of the U.S. from all agressive military pacts and alliances, such as NATO, and an end to the militarization of our country. A democratic foreign policy demands an end to all Big Power interference and intervention against sovereign nations and the recognition of the inviolable right of every nation to determine its affairs for itself.

The fundamental question which faces the working class and the people of our country is the question of capitalism or socialism. The entire reactionary, anti-social agenda of the Democrats and Republicans is the product of the all-around and unresolvable crisis of the monopoly capitalist system. It is this system, which is rotting alive and imposing growing poverty, repression, racism and war on the people. The bitter experience of the last several years has proven again and again that neither the anti-social offensive of the Republicans or the Democrats can resolve the contradictions of capitalism or open the path for the progress of our country. To solve the problem, the working class must first win the battle for democracy by capturing the political power and constituting itself as the leading and decision-making force. The workers must use their political power to eliminate the capitalist system based on private ownership of our country's socialized productive forces. The workers will establish a new socialist system in which the economy is owned and run by all the working people themselves and in which the aim of economic and social life is nothing less than guarantying ever-increasing freedom, progress and the well-being of the people.

Developing the broadest possible discussion over the aims and agenda of the people themselves, popularizing the program of economic rights, democratic renewal, a democratic foreign policy and socialism – this is the way to break the monopoly of the Republicans and Democrats and to affirm the people and their decisive role in the political life of the country.

No War on Syria!

The Obama administration's high profile anti-Syria campaign has lasted well over a year.

The Obama administration's chauvinist propaganda campaign against Syria reflects the extreme aggressiveness of U.S. imperialism in the present period. The Obama administration flaunts its contempt for the Syrian people, repeatedly insisting that it will not "rule out" the use of force to achieve its ambitions there. So too, Obama spits in the face of the American people, ignoring our demand: "Stop the wars!"

Already Bush and now Obama have imposed economic and political sanctions on Syria with the aim of bringing about "regime change" in that country.

U.S. imperialism's aggression against Syria is one link in a worldwide chain. Relying on its military power and imposing the doctrine that "Might Makes Right" on the peoples of the whole world, U.S. imperialism has declared that it alone has the right to determine the economic and social system of every country and to decide which peoples are entitled to sovereignty and independence and which are not.

We must struggle against Obama's plans to extend the war to Syria as well as to Iran and elsewhere.

Only the peoples can stop the war program of U.S. imperialism. We Must Do So!

We must continuously mobilize ever-wider sections of the people against each aggressive step taken by the government.

In the course of these fights we must organize our own independent political movement.

We must aim at taking the power out of the hands of the warmakers and creating a people's government which implements a program of peace and friendship by withdrawing all U.S. troops stationed abroad, ending U.S. interference and intervention against other countries and recognizing the sovereign equality of every nation.